Recording Features

This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. It’s time for some predictions for the new year. Here’s what I see happening in 2012. The good part is that we’ll see just how accurate I am on some of them by the end of January after the CES and NAMM shows. For a few others, we’ll have to wait awhile. Here we go. 1. Tablets take off for music production. For such a relatively new class of products, tablets like…
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“I recently purchased a really good (expensive) set of studio monitors for my studio, but I still find that my mixes sound drastically different as I listen to them on other systems. What am I missing?” While the studio monitors themselves are probably the single greatest cause of this problem, there are a number of other related factors that can have a significant impact. We’ll address three of them here. 1) Acoustic Treatment: It’s safe to assume that the decisions…
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This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. If you’re doing a session in Los Angeles and you want your drums to instantly sound great, then your first call is to the Drum Doctors to either rent a fantastic sounding kit, or have your kit tuned. Ross Garfield is the “Drum Doctor” and you’ve heard his drum sounds on platinum recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Metallica, Dwight Yokum, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitiz, Michael Jackson and…
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This article is provided by MASSIVE Mastering. I’m going to try to keep this very “fool proof”. This was born out of the rantings of hundreds and hundreds of posts on a dozen or more audio forums exploding like a volcano recorded with lots of headroom. I hope to instill a basic understanding of why certain trends and common beliefs are just plain bad. And by the time you’re done reading, and perhaps doing a little experimentation based on…
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This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. It’s that time of year again when it’s time to buy some gifts. It you’re in a quandary about what to buy for that musician or recording engineer in your life, you’re in luck. I have a list of recommendations that covers a variety of items and price ranges. Most of these products I use regularly. 1. Etymotic Reaserach ER 20 Hear Protection Ear Plugs I personally never go into a loud…
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This article is provided by Home Studio Corner. A couple months ago I got a gig recording a live concert. It wasn’t your typical show. One singer, one piano, in a big old church. In addition to recording the concert, I was also in charge of running live sound. Everything turned out really well, but there was a LOT to do and think about to ensure a smooth concert and a great-sounding recording. For one thing, the singer was…
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This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. It’s not unusual for musicians and engineers that are doing a lot of work in their home studio on bookshelf-sized speakers to crave more bottom end. As a result, the first thing they think about is adding a subwoofer to their monitor system. That’s all well and good, but there are a few steps that you can follow that might help your venture into low frequency territory a lot easier. 1. Do…
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This article is provided by Home Studio Corner. Right now I’m listening to the soundtrack from the movie Braveheart. I found it tucked away in an old CD case. (Random fact: I actually did a term paper in high school on William Wallace.) I’m listening to it right now (the soundtrack, not the term paper) on my Sennheiser HD650 headphones. Glorious. I’m almost too relaxed to t…y…p….e….. Anyway, whether or not you enjoy orchestral music, there is a lot…
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This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. There are certain sounds in life that are pretty much universally hated. Chalk on slate, styrofoam squeaks, a plate being scraped by a fork, and the good old fingernails on blackboard all cause a small amount of personal agony, regardless of culture or location on the planet. Not surprisingly, this reaction can be measured with increased heart rate, blood pressure and electrical conductivity of the skin. Believe it or not, a lot…
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One of the most popular specialized microphone techniques is stereo mic’ing. This use of two or more microphones to create a stereo image will often give depth and spatial placement to an instrument or overall recording. There are a number of different methods for stereo. Three of the most popular are the spaced pair (A/B), the coincident or near-coincident pair (X-Y configuration), and the md-side (M-S) technique. Spaced Pair Technique The spaced pair (A/B) technique uses two cardioid or omni…
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